perhaps daft but..( 4-way, 8 way joystick)

[-ief-]

i was just sitting here and wondered about this.

wouldn't it be possible to get some software to just ignore the 4 extra positions of the 8 way joystick so one could easely choose 4 or 8 way on a 8 way joystick?

and if it is, am i missing something else as why it isn't being done?   

[HaRuMaN]

No, not possible, because the diagonals are read as combinations of Up, Down, Left, Right.

Let's say you hit a diagonal, which direction should it choose?  There's no way to know.

[-ief-]

i'm not sure if we are on the same page here (first of, i'm talkin mame and a like), as far as i understand (knowledge is limited tho ) the switches of the joystick are linked to keyboard controls, for argues sake;

up    = w
right = d

as i see it that makes w + d = diagonal upper right, or am i missing something?

if i'm right, have a 8 way joystick and want to play a 4 way game the software only needs to disregard w + d input ( and w + a, s + a and s + d )

but....perhaps this is allready happening and there is another reason why people don't like playing pac-man or donky kong with an 8 way joystick ofcoarse...

in the latter case, this is/ was a daft question 

edit > harum, i now see your point btw...but that was not the way i was thinking as you can see above.

[u_rebelscum]

FWIW, there are a few ways mame can handle the "ignore diagonals" suggestion:

A. Totally ignore when a diagonal is pressed.  Con: dead spots with different sizes depending on the joystick's characteristics.
B. Treat moving to a diagonal as a change to the other ordinal direction.  Pro: quick changes.  Con: changing "switch points".
C. Treat moving to a diagonal as a not changing from the last ordinal direction.  Con: "Slow" to change to other directions, and changing "switch points".
D. Treat diagonals as a "rotated ordinal"; such as a diagonal pretends it's the direction clockwise to it.  Pro: fixed change points.  Con: rotated so not "natural" points.
E. No nothing and let the game ROM handle it.

Mame's default is B if the game driver marks the input as a 4-way, E if as an 8-way.  C used to be doable with a now removed option (-stickykey IIRC), and now needs a hack to the source (but it was removed for IMO a Good Reason).  A & D are possible by remapping, using the ANDs and NOTs features (ask if you want quick howto).


None of the above are as good as a true 4-way joystick, or some analog joysticks (u360 good, flightstick bad).  Which is why people still want 4-way joysticks.

[-ief-]

litlle late but...

TNX for that answer, made me feel even more daft but nonetheless

i recntly hacked a sidewinder in a topfighter snes joystick and now i know how it feels like playing 4 way games with 8 way stick, it plain s***s

[javeryh]

Everyone should just use Ultimarc 360 joysticks.  No more worrying about which type of joystick to use for a particular game.  Sure, it takes a bit to get used to the "feel" of it but once you do it works great.  I don't think I'll ever go back unless I'm building/restoring a dedicated machine or something.